Transportation and Health Resource Hub - Transportation Options

Transportation research circular E-C239, arterial roadways research needs and concerns: Informing the planning, design, and operation of arterial roadways considering public health

Arterial roads provide regional and local access to diverse economic and cultural resources that can positively influence community health. At the same time, arterial roads have been linked to various types of cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, poor birth outcomes, injuries, noise, and air pollution. They represent a prime opportunity for transportation and public health practitioners to work together to directly improve community health. Practitioners can learn from seven case areas covering research questions and salient concerns for practice. The document also includes over 250 questions that could be expanded into formal research problem statements.

Tennessee’s built environment and health case studies

This collection of case studies in Tennessee, primarily in rural communities, address the integration of health through master plans, corridor studies, sidewalk improvements, multi-modal access, and even a community kitchen. Each short case study (1-2 pages) has key lessons and recommendations that can be used by local advocates, community leaders, and governmental staff to identify strategies for integrating health. These case studies demonstrate the possibilities of integrating health into rural communities and small towns.

Systematic literature review of built environment effects on physical activity and active transport - an update and new findings on health equity

This systematic review—a review of the body of evidence on a subject—identified which environmental interventions increase physical activity for residents while also considering intervention costs. Furthermore, this study examined how the effects of these interventions differ by ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Interventions such as parks and playgrounds and active transportation facilities showed an increase in active transportation, visits to parks, and physical activity. There was some evidence that these kinds of interventions benefit socioeconomically advantaged groups more than other groups.

Planning a healthy Tennessee

Planning a Healthy Tennessee demonstrates the connections between specific community design features and health outcomes, and provides a real-world example of each feature. While applicable to a wide audience, particular emphasis was given towards its educational use within the design, development, and planning fields. The content is applicable to both rural and urbanized areas. Community design features positively impacting most of the social determinants of health merit consideration by transportation and land use professionals working across the rural-urban spectrum. Many healthy design features already exist in most communities, and they should be expanded on or replicated where practicable.

NCHRP research report 932: a research roadmap for transportation and public health management

The purpose of A Research Roadmap for Transportation and Public Health is to build upon thebody of literature strategic agendas, and research needs regarding calls for integrating transportation and health and to provide a plan for funding research over the next decade that can lead to greater consideration of health issues in transportation contexts. This report produced recommendations for integrating health into transportation, derived from a research process that involved both stakeholder engagement (including representatives from federal, state, and local transportation and health-related agencies) and a review and synthesis of existing literature (including peer-reviewed literature, grey literature such as reports, conference proceedings, magazines, and other published works). This report identified research needed to support specific agency processes to incorporate health; research gaps and needs and how research is translated into practice; research needed for emerging health issues; priority research problem statements, and developed an implementation plan for guiding research ideas into funded projects.